0368-4165-01

Seminar in Cryptographic Protocols

Note: On Monday, March 15
there will be no meeting. A makeup meeting will take place Friday, March 20,
10-12.

General

Cryptographic protocols are algorithms that allow parties to
communicate and collaborate in untrusted environments. They include
algorithms that protect against external attackers, as well as algorithms for
collaboration with untrusted peers. Besides being fascinating in of
themselves, cryptographic protocols provide essential building blocks in the
design of secure systems. This seminar will cover some aspects of
cryptographic protocols, with the purpose of bringing students up to speed
with the state of the art and enabling them to perform independent research.

Required background

An introductory graduate course in
cryptography (such as the one given last semester at
TAU) is highly recommended. If you haven't taken such a course please
contact Ran.

Format

Most lectures will be given by the students. Preparing for the lecture
will involve:

Reading
the relevant material.

Preparing
a presentation. (Slides are recommended but not mandatory.)

Meeting
with Ran during the week prior to the presentation to go over the
presentation, and fixing it accordingly.

Presenting
in class.

Preparing
a written summary of the presentation to be posted online. (In case of a
slides presentation, the slides themselves can double up as the
summary.)

Lecture Topics

Below is a list of lecture topics for students to pick from. The
lectures to be given and their order will be decided in the first two
meetings, based on the makeup of the class and the preferences of the
students.

Some lectures are bunched under a single topic. These lectures are best
given in sequence, in the specified order. Some ordering between the topic is
also best kept. Otherwise lectures can be presented at any order. In any
case, each bullet corresponds to a lecture.

In much of the list below only the original papers are mentioned. Often
the covered material has better or alternative descriptions in later papers.
There may also be presentation materials available online. You are encouraged
to use all of these to improve your understanding and your presentation.